In many ways, plugins are a killer feature for using WordPress. Using the right free WordPress plugin can mean the difference between a very successful website and an average one. There are over 54,000+ WordPress plugins that you can choose from and you need to choose the best ones. Having the right set of WordPress plugins and tools can help you grow a lot.
Top 11 Most Important Plugins for WordPress
The main focus of this article is to highlight the best WordPress plugins in their respective categories. Here are 11 plugins you must use for your WordPress and explain why they are important. Most of them are already popular plugins with millions of downloads and a huge army of users.
1. Yoast SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization and Yoast SEO is one of the most basic and most important plugins. This plugin helps you regarding your ranking on search engines as well as helps you to maintain your article in a proper format. There are several criteria in SEO like the sentence and paragraph length, Flesch reading ease, etc which gives you a proper format. Yoast SEO comes in both forms that are premium as well as the free version. Yoast SEO’s main objective is to rank you better on search engines like Google and Bing.
2. Contact Form 7
Contact form 7 is one of the most popular and easiest plugins in WordPress. This plugin helps in managing multiple contact forms, customization of the form and the mail contents flexibly with simple markup. Some features of this plugin are complete customizability using simple mark-up, simple interface, useful and detailed documentation. This plugin also supports AJAX submission and Submissions come to mailbox directly as well. Know here how to use Contact Form 7.
3. JetPack
JetPack is the ultimate plugin for WordPress. All the core features are free but you can have additional features like daily backup and many others at very affordable prices. It has some other features like custom CSS and photons which helps you a lot to customize your stuff as per your requirement. The Jetpack plugin includes a huge variety of modules that add various features to your site. You can choose to activate only the modules you’ll actually use. Certain modules are activated by default as well.
4. W3 Total Cache
W3 total catch or W3TC is a very simple and famous plugin in WordPress sites. It works out of the box by caching every element on your WordPress installation and helps to speed up the site. It is best in caching every aspect of your site, reducing the download times and providing transparent content delivery network (CDN) integration. W3TC helps you in improved page load time, optimization score improvement and improved user experience. It is also best in saving bandwidth. It saves up to 80% of bandwidth with the help of Minify.
5. WP Smush
WP Smush is a WordPress plugin that allows you to optimize images without losing quality. It is best for beginners as it is so easy to use. This plugin helps in the compression of images and you can optimize up to 50 images in just one click. The best thing about WP Smush is that there is no limit on the number of optimizations you do. You can optimize all your images up to the size of 5mb forever.
6. MonsterInsight
MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. The best part is that it shows you all the important stats that matter right inside your WordPress dashboard. With the help of these stats, you can optimize your website for the upcoming traffic and subscribers. There is a free as well as a paid version of MonsterInsight. You will get the important benefits if you go for the paid option.
7. Wordfence Security
The Wordfence security plugin provides the best protection available for your WordPress website. This plugin protects your website from getting hacked. It is a kind of antivirus or firewall for your website. The Wordfence firewall protects your website from any kind of malware as well. This plugin scans everything on your website from core files to code injections. It is an all in one protection for your website. This also comes in paid as well as free version so it completely depends upon the user which one to choose.
8. UpdraftPlus
UpdraftPlus is the most famous WordPress backup plugin in the market. This plugin helps to backup all your data and store it anywhere at your convenience. It is really easy to restore all your data as well with the help of this plugin. Most of the features you will get for free but if you want then there is a paid version as well.
9. Elementor
Elementor is a page builder plugin that replaces the basic WordPress editor. This plugin helps in building your webpage. If you want to use Elementor to build your core website pages then Elementor Pro is a great option because of the new elements, extra controls, and other functionality.
10. Akismet
Akismet is a comment spam filtering service. This plugin comes pre-installed in your WordPress website but it’s not activated. You have to take a few extra steps to activate this feature. Akismet catches spam comments before it goes in your moderation queue as pending. This plugin’s prices range from 0$ for the free services and up to 120$ according to your plan.
11. OptinMonster
OptinMonster is the most popular conversion rate optimization software in the market. This plugin helps in converting the leaving viewers into email subscribers or customers. This WordPress plugin and application help you get more email subscribers and that also really fast. Their powerful display targeting features allow you to personalize the campaigns for each user as per your requirement which comes handy. It’s a great solution for bloggers, business websites, and eCommerce websites.
In conclusion, these are some of the best plugins which you must-have in your WordPress so that your working efficiency, as well as a business both, increase tremendously. Yoast SEO is one the most important plugin as it helps you get ranked on search engines and increase blog traffic. All these plugins are really useful and you can prepare the best WordPress web page. These plugins help in managing your site, protect it from malware, taking backups and optimize your site and images in it. Go give it a try you might love all of these.
